December 2020 - Pharo-users

Call for Beta-testers Pharo ARM64 JIT
by StÃ©phane Ducasse Dec. 13, 2020

Dec. 13, 2020

Dear happy Pharoers and others, Over the last months we have been working on the implementation of a MIT-licensed ARMv8 Just-In-Time compiler for Pharo VM. We are very happy with the advance on this subject, as we have not only implemented a new backend but we have added more than 2500 tests to the JIT, the primitives, code generation, plugins and the VM in general. In the process we fixed many problems. It shows that following the roadmap that was decided during General assembly of PharoDays, we have been investing in the Pharo VM and that our efforts are greatly paying off. Also, we are generating a lot of documentation and improving the process to really democratize the development of the VM. So Pharo is a better shape than ever on such matter and this opens a lot of possibility for the future. ## Call for Beta-Testers We would like to announce that a first version of our JIT backend is available for beta-testing for ARM Linux machines using Ubuntu. We are now entering into a beta testing stage of the VM and the image in Ubuntu ARM 64. We would like to invite you to our beta testing phase for the VM. If you're interested in participating, please contact pablo.tesone(a)inria.fr. The following sections give more details of the current status, and the following steps including Apple Silicon, Windows ARM64 and Linux Open Build System support. ## Current Status Our objective is to have a running JIT for the new aarch64 architecture (ARM 64bits). This task includes not only a new backend for the JIT compiler but also adding support for external libraries, dependencies and the build process. This means having a working VM with comparable features as the one existing in Intel X64. We are targeting all the major operating systems running in this platform (Linux, OSX, Windows). Each of them present different restrictions and conditions. This is the current status: - We implemented a full backend for the JIT compiler targeting aarch64. - All the image side was adapted to run on it, tested on Ubuntu ARM 64 bits. - We added support for: Iceberg (Libgit) / Athens (Cairo) / SDL / GTK - We implemented a LibFFI-based FFI backend as the default one for Pharo 9 in aarch64 (next to come in all platforms). This opens the door to ease port the features to other platforms and OSes. ## Following Steps and Open Betas: Linux Open Build System (OBS), Windows ARM64 and Apple Silicon Linux Systems: In the following days, we will also support Raspbian (Debian) and Manjaro on ARM64. For doing so, we are pushing the last details in having a single Linux build system through OBS. So, if you want to start doing beta-testing of these versions please contact us. A public beta will be open in around two weeks. Windows Systems: We have extended the build process to fully support Microsoft Visual Studio compilers and more flexibility to select the targets, also we are building it to run in Windows ARM. To correctly run the VM in Windows it is needed to build all dependencies for aarch64. In the following weeks, we expect to have a working Non-JIT version and a JIT version. The remaining points to have a JIT version are related with the build process as the API of the operating system has not changed from X64 to aarch64. OSX Systems: Our third target is to have a working version for the newest Apple silicon. We are acquiring the corresponding hardware to test and to address the differences in the API exposed to JIT applications. As it is the case of the Windows VM, there is not need to change the machine code generation backend; but to compile external libraries, and particularities of the new OS version. Thanks for your support, and again, if you like to start beta testing the VM please contact us. In the meantime, we will continue giving you news about the current state and where are we going. The consortium would like to particularly thank Schmidt Buro and Lifeware for their contracts. Regards, Pablo in behalf of the Pharo Consortium Engineers -------------------------------------------- StÃ©phane Ducasse http://stephane.ducasse.free.fr / http://www.pharo.org 03 59 35 87 52 Assistant: Aurore Dalle FAX 03 59 57 78 50 TEL 03 59 35 86 16 S. Ducasse - Inria 40, avenue Halley, Parc Scientifique de la Haute Borne, BÃ¢t.A, Park Plaza Villeneuve d'Ascq 59650 France

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Please explain self
by g_patrickb＠yahoo.com Dec. 13, 2020

Dec. 13, 2020

I understand if you have Class A with methods p and q that you can call q from p doing: self q But there are some cases where a method doesnât exist but self is still used. I found a tutorial on creating a Reddit type app and it had a .mcz which I loaded. Here is an example from Class StLoggedInComponent and method refreshReport: self report rows: (self session user tasks select: self filterBlock). There is a method âreportâ so I understand that, but there is no method named âsessionâ so what is the use of self? And Class StDatabase has method âupdateTask:â has: self subclassResponsibility. But no method called âsubclassResponsibilityâ exists in the Class. Also, Class StLoggedInComponents has method âtestTasksâ with this: ^ self class testTasks What is âself classâ? Thank you.

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UK Smalltalk User Group Meeting - Wednesday, December 30th
by Giovanni Corriga Dec. 11, 2020

Dec. 11, 2020

The UK Smalltalk User Group will have an extra meeting this year on Wednesday, December 30th. feenk's Tudor Girba will present the latest in moldable development with Glamorous Toolkit. Moldable development is an approach to programming through which we make the inside of software systems explainable. Glamorous Toolkit makes it practical. And beautiful. Given the current COVID-19 restrictions, this will be an online meeting from home. If you'd like to join us, please sign up in advance on the meeting's Meetup page ( https://www.meetup.com/UKSTUG/events/275119813/ ) to receive the meeting details. Donât forget to bring your laptop and drinks!

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Trouble with checking out from Github
by Petter Dec. 10, 2020

Dec. 10, 2020

Hi, I have three computers and two of these, one Linux and one Mac works excellent with Iceberg. But I have a difficult child, one laptop where I can not checkout code from a private github repo. It keeps running into stacktrace, nomatter which strategy I select. Problems does not seem to be connected to versions. I have tried different versions of Pharo images, from 8-stable to 9-bleeding edge. I have ticked the ssh-setting in Pharo for using custom keys and verified that these exists and has right permissions. Checkout from ssh in shell works fine. I have tried these strategies. 1) Using the add-key trick which is referred as a solution on this, like in ssh-add ~/.ssh/id_rsa This always results in stacktrace in Pharo. 2) Checking out as as github-repo with ssh, same problem 3) Checking out as a git-repo, same problem 4) Generated new ssh-keys and tried to setup these as the default keys Same stack trace problem in Pharo. 5) Checking out over https This does not work either. The ssh-checkout box appears in Pharo even though I select this specifically. Checking out over https-does not seem to be working at all? Version on ssh on my laptop is: ssh: OpenSSH_8.1p1, LibreSSL 2.7.3 mac: Catalina 10.15.6 Interesting enough I have the same versions on my working mac. Only difference is that the default ssh-key is with a passphrase on the non-working computer (entering this in the ssh does not help, creating a new ssh-keypair without a passphrase does not make a difference either). ssh_config is also equal on the two computers. Has anybody solved a case like this or has any clues? This beats me :) And when Iceberg is up and running I must say it is really a valuable and nice tool, thx! Petter -- Sent from: http://forum.world.st/Pharo-Smalltalk-Users-f1310670.html

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Fwd: [EXTERNAL] Re: Opening presentation of the JPL Open Developer seminar series
by StÃ©phane Ducasse Dec. 9, 2020

Dec. 9, 2020

Roassal presentation to JPL (Nasa lab :)). S > Begin forwarded message: > > From: "Brunzie, Ted J (US 337C)" <ted.j.brunzie(a)jpl.nasa.gov> > Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL] Re: Opening presentation of the JPL Open Developer seminar series > Date: 8 December 2020 at 21:54:42 CET > To: StÃ©phane Ducasse <stephane.ducasse(a)inria.fr> > Cc: Pablo Tesone <pablo.tesone(a)inria.fr>, Steven Costiou <steven.costiou(a)inria.fr>, denker <marcus.denker(a)inria.fr>, Esteban Lorenzano <esteban.lorenzano(a)inria.fr> > -------------------------------------------- StÃ©phane Ducasse http://stephane.ducasse.free.fr / http://www.pharo.org 03 59 35 87 52 Assistant: Aurore Dalle FAX 03 59 57 78 50 TEL 03 59 35 86 16 S. Ducasse - Inria 40, avenue Halley, Parc Scientifique de la Haute Borne, BÃ¢t.A, Park Plaza Villeneuve d'Ascq 59650 France

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New version of FFICHeaderExtractor v1.0.2 and OSubprocess v1.3.0
by StÃ©phane Ducasse Dec. 7, 2020

Dec. 7, 2020

Hi Some news since StandardFileStream got deprecated in Pharo 80, we removed it form Pharo 90. We updated - FFICHeaderExtractor now version v1.0.2 got migrated to Tonel and pharo-contributions + github actions https://github.com/pharo-contributions/OSSubprocess - OSSubprocess version v1.3.0 is out https://github.com/pharo-contributions/OSSubprocess Stef -------------------------------------------- StÃ©phane Ducasse http://stephane.ducasse.free.fr / http://www.pharo.org 03 59 35 87 52 Assistant: Aurore Dalle FAX 03 59 57 78 50 TEL 03 59 35 86 16 S. Ducasse - Inria 40, avenue Halley, Parc Scientifique de la Haute Borne, BÃ¢t.A, Park Plaza Villeneuve d'Ascq 59650 France

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(Re)storing code blocks from text strings (hopefully in STON)
by Offray Vladimir Luna CÃ¡rdenas Dec. 6, 2020

Dec. 6, 2020

Hi, I'm using STON for all my light storage serialization needs, like the Grafoscopio notebooks, and I also love it, as Russ stated in their mail question, and I share with him a similar request: for my Brea[1] static site generator I would like to store some BreaQuery objects as external STON files, and recover them, so I can run the queries that recreate/update the website easily. I could store them as Grafoscopio notebooks, but I don't want to make Grafoscopio a prerequisite for Brea or I could use Fuel, but I would like to store queries as a diff friendly text based format. I have considered Metacello/Iceberg packages to export code in a diff friendly format, but It maybe overkill. So I would like to see if STON can serve me here too. [1] https://mutabit.com/repos.fossil/brea/ [2] https://mutabit.com/repos.fossil/indieweb/ So far, I'm able to serialize a code block as a string using: BreaQuery>>asStonModified Â Â Â self codeBlock: self codeBlock asString Â Â Â ^ STON toStringPretty: self But I'm unable to populate a block from a string. There is any way to make a string, lets say 'a + b', to become the code contents of a block, ie: [a + b ] ? Thanks, Offray

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Dec. 5, 2020

Hi I have a question and I could not find the answer in the SmalltalkCI doc I would like to run my tests on different versions of Pharo I know how to do it in travis but in GA I missed it. I read https://github.com/marketplace/actions/setup-smalltalkci and tutorials on the net about GA So I tried name: test env: GITHUB_TOKEN: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }} on: push: branches: - master jobs: build: strategy: fail-fast: false matrix: platform: [ubuntu-latest, macos-latest ] pharoversion: [Pharo64-8.0, Pharo64-9.0] runs-on: ${{ matrix.platform }} steps: - uses: actions/checkout@v2 - uses: hpi-swa/setup-smalltalkCI@v1 id: smalltalkci with: smalltalk-version: pharoversion - run: smalltalkci -s ${{ steps.smalltalkci.outputs.pharoversion }} shell: bash timeout-minutes: 15 but it failed. I do not know how to specify the version of Pharo64-8.0 on mac. S. -------------------------------------------- StÃ©phane Ducasse http://stephane.ducasse.free.fr / http://www.pharo.org 03 59 35 87 52 Assistant: Aurore Dalle FAX 03 59 57 78 50 TEL 03 59 35 86 16 S. Ducasse - Inria 40, avenue Halley, Parc Scientifique de la Haute Borne, BÃ¢t.A, Park Plaza Villeneuve d'Ascq 59650 France

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[Video] Transforming code using RewriteToolsSet
by Sebastian Jordan Dec. 5, 2020

Dec. 5, 2020

Hi, If you are interested in applying custom code transformations on a selected set of classes, maybe this tool will be of your interest. I made these mini-tutorial-videos in which I transform the code of a set of classes through a transformation rule using this brand new tool RewriteToolsSet. Thanks! [GitHub's repo: https://github.com/jordanmontt/RewriteToolsSet] - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0ElVhUoWXk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_9v1XTk1J2A [https://www.bing.com/th?id=OVF.rbOc4EaCst%2fncgXkMaTwHA&pid=Api]<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0ElVhUoWXk> Transforming code using RewriteToolsSet<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0ElVhUoWXk> In this video we are going to see another common use case of this set of tools. We are going to reactor the code of all classes of a package using a transformation rule. If you have any question or experience any bug, please do not hesitate open an issue on the GitHub page or contact me. Thank you for you time! GitHub's repository: https ... www.youtube.com

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[Pharo Mooc] Change colors of test results
by sergio ruiz Dec. 4, 2020

Dec. 4, 2020

Hey, all.. I am taking the Pharo Mooc, and was wondering: is there any way to change the color next to the test method name? I am colorblind, and I canât tell the different between green and yellow. Thanks! ---- peace, sergio photographer, journalist, visionary Public Key: https://pgp.key-server.io/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x69B08F58923AB3A2 #BitMessage BM-NBaswViL21xqgg9STRJjaJaUoyiNe2dV @sergio_101@mastodon.social https://sergio101.com http://www.codeandmusic.com http://www.twitter.com/sergio_101 http://www.facebook.com/sergio101

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